The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is sharing more details on local COVID-19 deaths in the region.
Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Shanker Nesathurai says since August there have been 42 COVID-19 related deaths in Windsor-Essex.
He says 30 deaths were among the unvaccinated, while 12 were in vaccinated individuals.
"From a population, health and individual level, we have people who are dying, who don't need to die and it's well within our reach as a community to try and protect their health," he says.
Dr. Nesathurai says the deaths among vaccinated individuals had previous medical conditions.
"What we're seeing as a clinical trend in Windsor-Essex is, of the vaccinated people that are dying those people have significant medical comorbidity and examples of that is they had cancer that was treated in the past or they've had a stroke in the past," says Dr. Nesathurai. "As a general construct, people that are otherwise well and vaccinated aren't dying of COVID right now, as a general construct. The people dying of COVID for the most part are unvaccinated people who have a spectrum of illness including those that are healthy."
There have been 478 COVID-19 related deaths in Windsor-Essex since the beginning of the pandemic.